- Dec 29, 2008
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Excellent solution.
First thing Israel must do for that to happen is for their court system to recognize the rightful claims of the millions of Palestinians who OWNED the properties that the State of Israel took from them.
Notice now, I do NOT say the whole nation, just those pieces of land and homes where the Palestinians actually OWNED.
Describing this problem in the most simplictic way possible, much of the creation of Isreal (not all of it, mind you) was nothing more than REAL ESTATE THEFT.
Now before you tell me thse people did not have legal title, know that I know they did and I ALSO KNOW, (perhaps you do not) that the STATE OF ISRAEL refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of their titles even those the BRITISH mandate government recognised them as completely legitmate for the thirty years that THEY controlled those properties.
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In fact, Israel has always recognized the legitimacy of Ottoman deeds and British deeds, and during the Mandate period, the British courts determined, according to the British reports to the League of Nations, that about 80% of the Arab claims of land theft by Jews were false and most of the others were simple contract disputes that were easily adjusted.
Under ordinary circumstances, British and Ottoman deeds are recognized and honored by Israeli courts, however, there are two situations in which they might not be. The first concerns those who left Israel during the 1948-1949 war. Since most Arabs did not leave during the war, there is a general presumption that those who did did so to make common cause with the enemy and are therefore traitors to the new state of Israel, although those people may think of what they did as acts of loyalty to a higher cause, and all nations reserve the right to punish traitors and confiscation of property is not an especially unusual or harsh punishment for this offense In fact, those Arabs who left Israel during the war and who could document their claim that they did not support the enemy in any way and who presented valid deeds, did get their property back or compensation for it, but these have been very few in number.
The second situation involves the right of eminent domain which all nations claim. When Israel exercises this right in the disputed territories Israeli courts have held that anyone who holds a valid deed, including Ottoman deeds or British deeds, must be given a chance to protest the state's right to take the property and must be offered fair market compensation for it if the court decides the state has an overriding need for that property. Whenever a state exercises the right of eminent domain, whether it be in Chicago or Philadelphia or London or Paris or the West Bank, there are some aggrieved parties who think they have been treated unfairly, and that is probably true in some cases, but the issue in the West Bank is not about deeds or the fairness of Israeli courts but about the fact that most Palestinians do not recognize the jurisdiction of Israel in the West Bank.